


Smells Like Teen Spirit

by GoodIdeaAtTheTime



Series: Little Legacies [3]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Guess how well it's going at fifteen, Guest starring: Magnus, M/M, Multi, You thought they couldn't handle her at seven, teenage angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-16 04:29:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12335514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoodIdeaAtTheTime/pseuds/GoodIdeaAtTheTime
Summary: Sequel to 'Such Little Things' and 'Schoolyard Blues'. Liangyu is now fifteen, and has two years left of high school. The growing pains are not even close to over, though, but everyone tries very hard.





	Smells Like Teen Spirit

“So, what’s her deal?”

“Who?”

“The littlest vampire over there.”

Marianne twisted in her chair and followed Julie’s gaze. Across the room, Liangyu was talking intently with the class teacher, holding two very large books that definitely weren’t on the curriculum.

It was the first day back after the summer, and it had brought rain.  Still warm for early September, the day was muggy and soupy at Merchez School for Girls, and no-one was particularly comfortable or keen to be back. 

Except, naturally, Liangyu Chang.

Merchez was a private, all-girls school, priding itself on academic achievement, and developing their students to be the strong, female leaders of the future. A credo which looked excellent on the brochures, but no-one really took to heart. Well. Almost no-one.

Dressed in a black t-shirt, a black choker, black tights and heavy black boots, the only colour in her outfit was the bright red pleated skirt she wore. Liangyu’s one concession to the weather was putting her long black hair into a ponytail, but otherwise she looked fairly untouched by the heat. Their teacher, slowly dissolving in the thick, hot air - even with all the windows open - was nodding tiredly at her, and clearly wishing that once, just once, Liangyu would just do a ‘welcome back’ activity like the rest of the class.

“That’s just Liangyu,” Marianne said, with a shrug. “She’s always like that.”

Marianne had been at the school with Liangyu since they had started at eleven years old, as had about two thirds of the class. They were used to her. At this stage, five years later, at the start of their penultimate year, they broadly just let her get on with it, and enjoyed the fact that often her fervour for learning meant that the teachers didn’t notice minor infractions going on around her.

The remaining third of the class were new this year, having applied to join for the final two years, and complete the examinations before University. They were watching Liangyu with a mixture of fascination and horror - several of them clearly wondering if Liangyu was setting a precedent to which they all needed to aspire. Marianne remembered that feeling, except, in their first year, Liangyu had inadvertently carried the whole class into extreme participation for the entire first term, because there had been no-one to tell them otherwise. The teachers has been both startled, and drained, and been glad when the majority of the class had finally taken their feet off the gas. A school for already high-achievers did not really need any extra propulsion towards greatness, and they were rapidly outstripping the year’s curriculum.

“So, what,” Hester asked, leaning her chin on her hand, and watching Liangyu with a measuring expression, “is she teacher’s pet? Because Monsieur Brabant looks like he wants her to go away.”

“She’s just pretty intense.” Marianne shrugged, doodling idly in the back of her planner. “She’s alright though.”

“Is she like a secret chainsmoker, then? Or popping adderall?”

“...No,” Marianne said, after a thoughtful pause. “She just… does her thing.”

Hester didn’t seem entirely satisfied by that response, but the bell rang for lunch, and Marianne couldn’t bring herself to care.

  
  


*

  
  


It had surprised no-one when, ever-decisive and confident in her own mind, Liangyu had declared her intention at 10 to attend Merchez. It had caused only somewhat more surprise when she was successful in her application for a full scholarship - not least because her parents had not been aware she was applying for one. It had been accepted, when practicality and pragmatism overpowered slightly injured pride.

The arrangement had actually worked very well - her parents had been able to drop her at school on their way to work of a morning, and once school was over for the day she did her homework in the school library, then walked to the Preventers HQ to meet them.

Duo was more than a little baffled by her dedication to her studies, and her rigid adherence to her timetable, but she was extremely determined, and clearly got that from at least one of her biological parents, if not both of them. She certainly got plenty from Wufei, at any rate, he mused, watching her.

As she had grown - admittedly not far, she was still something of a pocket rocket, particularly next to Duo’s lanky frame - her personality had stayed just as stubborn, but her face had become more like Wufei’s. Apparently she had her mother’s chin and facial structure, but her nose and eyes were unmistakably from her father - something which Wufei had apologised to her for. Duo found it fascinating tracing the familial likeness, in face and manner. She was every bit Wufei’s daughter, but then Wufei was regularly exasperated at her likeness to Duo, so perhaps even he had had an effect.

They were in the basement shooting range at the Preventers HQ, which was mostly deserted at this time anyway, sequestered in the far lane to keep out of the way. Bright yellow ear defenders securely in place, Liangyu was intently checking and loading a little Glock, sighting down to the target with clean, confident movements.

“Y’know, if you wanted to go out with your friends after school sometimes, that’d be okay,” Duo told her, leaning against the lane divider. “I mean, I like hangin’ out with you, and you’re a better student than half my recruits, but this ain’t exactly a normal teen experience.”

“What do you know about a normal teen experience?” Liangyu responded, settling into her stance, taking a deep breath, and firing off two rounds in quick succession.

“Nothin’,” Duo allowed. “But I’m pretty much an expert in the  _ ab _ normal teen experience.”

Liangyu snorted at that, the ear defenders only just picking up the noise, and fired off another shot.

“Dad doesn’t like me hanging out with the other kids in my year,” she said, finally, lowering the gun a little and glancing over her shoulder at him.

He scratched his chin thoughtfully and sighed, a rueful smile curling at his lips.

“He’s just worried that some of them’re nearly two years older’n you, is all,” he said. “You know what he’s like. Whereas I know you’re probably two years smarter’n any of them.”

His daughter quirked a pleased grin at him, before quickly looking back down the range, embarrassed, and not for the first time Duo wondered how it was possible to love a person so much. He reached his foot out to nudge at hers, encouraging her to widen her stance a smidge, before she fired again.

“That’s why I don’t want to spend time with them,” she told him, knocking the safety onto the gun and setting it down as he reeled the target in for inspection. “They’re all immature and stupid.”

“You’re soundin’ pretty arrogant there, kiddo,” Duo observed, unhooking the paper and passing it to her, replacing it with a new one and sending it back down the range - a little further away this time.

“You just said I was smarter than them.”

“I did, but I’m your dad. ‘Course I think that.” He winked at her and she glared at him in frustration, looking every inch Wufei for a moment. “You know you’re smart. I know you’re smart. I think you’re worth ten of any other kid, ‘cepting maybe Mireille and Leo, but that’s only ‘cause the idea of ten of either of them scares the shit outta me. But there’s a difference between knowin’ your worth an’ judgin’ other people against it.”

Liangyu looked disgruntled, and turned back to look down the range, fingers stroking over the gun as she avoided her father’s gaze.

“You know I’m right,” he wheedled, teasing, and getting a reluctant quirk of lips in response.

“Yes, but I don’t have to like it,” she muttered.

“Yeah,” he agreed, cheerfully, as she scooped up the glock and resumed her position. “But the truth ain’t always fun. It’s just the truth.”

Fifteen minutes later, the clip was empty and the target was being winched in again as Liangyu passed the gun over to Duo to store.

“When’s dad back?” she asked, falling into step beside him as they headed to the lockers to return the glock and their ear defenders.

“You know when.”

“...When you tell me, I know if there’s been any news.”

Checking the equipment back in with the Provisions Officer, and signing off the loan form, Duo gave her an affectionate smile as she avoided eye contact and fidgeted with her watch strap.

When she had been tiny, Duo had worked in cyber crimes whilst Wufei remained on the front lines, partnered with Sally. But, since Mireille had been born, Sally moved to training, and Duo was brought back into active mission service, partnering with Heero, whilst Wufei and Trowa worked together. It had been nice to feel more in control, using all of his skills, but it had thrown up more risks.

The concession Une had agreed to was that Wufei and Duo would never be sent on assignments at the same time. So far, they had both come home safely.

So far didn’t stop anyone from worrying that next time wouldn’t be the case.

“All bein' well, he’ll be back Wednesday,” he said, draping his arm across her shoulders and tugging gently at a lock of her hair, guiding her towards the elevators to the car park. “Which means we’ve got two more dinners where we don’t have to worry about naggin’ to eat better. Pizza?”

“Are you trying to bribe me with junk food?”

“Yes.”

“Then, absolutely, pizza.”

  
  


*

 

The thing about a cluster of schoolgirls was that it inevitably attracted more schoolgirls. And then more. Its ever-increasing mass drawing more and more bodies into it.

Standing at the back, Hester reflected that this was how planets formed. She wondered if she waited long enough, whether or not the crowd blocking the school gates would become its own system, swathes of uniforms and the occasional pair of jeans from students in her year or the year above melding together to form a celestial body. Mobile phones were being waved above heads, trying to get photographs of whatever was causing the kerfuffle.

The gravitational pull was such that no-one could resist. Even such lofty satellites as Liangyu were tempted across, her trajectory to the library warped by the sheer size of the gaggle in the schoolyard, bringing her to stand beside Hester with a curious frown.

So, she did indulge in some of the same weaknesses as lesser humans occasionally, Hester thought dryly, watching the Chinese girl out of the corner of her eye with more interest than she had studied the crowd.

“What’s happening?”

“Mass hysteria,” Hester drawled. “Possibly over a dog.”

“Quatre Winner’s parked across the road,” said a girl in front of them, clearly pleased to know something they didn’t, shooting a smug look over her shoulder, even as she tried to push forwards to try and ogle the celebrity.

Hester saw Liangyu start beside her, surprised, and her eyes scanned the crowd, calculating, considering. Clearly trying to calculate a route to the gate, which was being blocked as best possible by a couple of teachers, trying to prevent the girls mobbing their hapless target, and blocking the road, whilst allowing people out to catch their busses, Hester followed Liangyu curiously as she tried, abortively, to force her way through the crowd. She was thwarted by the close jam of people, all of whom had been in position longer than her and therefore deserved first dibs on the view.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, she skirted around the edge of the cluster and up to the railings surrounding the school, through which the road could be seen. Liangyu attempted to push her way through past the people trying to see through the railings, before letting out a frustrated noise. She slid her backpack off and clambered up onto the three foot brick wall which the railings were sunk into, swinging it a couple of times for momentum and flinging it over the top.

She caught the interest of the edge of the crowd nearest to her as she jumped up to grab the horizontal bar at the top of the rails, and began to hoist herself up. There was some pointing and nudging, a few disgruntled shouts, a few more of encouragement, as she scrambled over the top, careful to avoid the pointy, wrought-iron flourishes at the top. Hester managed to get against the railings to watch her leap down, before the crowd shifted around her also wanting to see.

“Liangyu Chang! Get back inside!”

She had been spotted by one of the bus duty teachers, who was apparently less than impressed with her amateur gymnastics, but couldn’t leave his position as part of the human barricade to chase her.

“I mean it, Chang!”

Liangyu ignored him, grabbing her bag and jogging across the road to where a swish red convertible was parked, and Quatre Winner - blonde, slim, well-dressed, and looking thoroughly embarrassed about the chaos he was causing - stood beside it, calling apologies to the staff. Clearly he hadn’t thought this through at all.

Monsieur Farah yelled some more as Liangyu approached the billionaire, but Quatre just raised his hand, signalling it was fine, and he relented.

Hester was fascinated - too far away to hear what they were saying, she could read the urgency in Liangyu’s face, the sympathetic concern in Quatre Winner’s. They were speaking quickly, and eventually Liangyu’s expression fell, before hardening, and she stormed around the car, clambering into the passenger seat and slamming the door behind her. Quatre slid into the driver seat, gunned the engine with a very pleasing rumble, and pulled away, winding the window down as he left to wave thanks again to the teachers.

Well, Hester thought, as the crowd watched in stunned silence, before starting to trickle away, sharing theories in careful undertones with each other. There was definitely more to her classmate than she had previously realised.

Not least because climbing those railings was a bit of a feat.

  
  


*

 

Duo had called Quatre first, to ask him to meet Liangyu and brief her. Quatre hadn’t even thought twice as he had jumped into the nearest car and sped to Liangyu’s school to meet her, parking somewhere visible so she would spot him when she came out.

That was a mistake, and one he became very quickly aware of.

His exposure to teenage girls was fairly limited, so the excitement of his arrival was rather unexpected, and by the time he had realised the kerfuffle he had caused, he didn’t want to risk moving in case he missed Liangyu entirely. Possibly he could have called her, but Duo had said she kept her phone off at school – and, he had grumbled, usually in the bottom of her bag, and never answered the damn thing.

So when he spotted said bag being flung over the school fence and landing on the pavement with a resounding thump, Quatre resolved to see if he needed to buy Liangyu a new phone before her parents returned.

When they returned.

She had known something was up right away, and had not been satisfied with his summary overview of events, instead demanding to be taken directly to Une. Given as Une had been braced for this possibility, Quatre obliged.

And now he was stood by the door in Une’s office, Sally mirroring him behind the commander on the far side of the room. Liangyu was perched on the edge of the chair across the desk from Une, and was waiting patiently for a full explanation.

“We received notification last night that your father and his partner had been injured during the course of their mission,” Une said calmly, unphased by Liangyu’s glare. “We were given to understand that these were not life-threatening injuries, but they were unable to reach their extraction point, and had been required to take shelter within a hostile area. We were in the process of assembling a recovery team when your other father heard the news, and insisted that he and his partner take the lead on the assignment. They were deployed at 1100 hours. We received notification that they had been delivered to their drop point at 1400 hours. We don’t anticipate any further issues with this operation.”

“Well you didn’t anticipate the original issues,” Liangyu pointed out acidly, “so that isn’t exactly reassuring.”

“That is true,” Une acknowledged, looking away to straighten a pen on her desk, lining it up with the blotter pad. An unfortunate tell, Quatre thought with some amusement. One she wouldn’t have shown were she not trying to be reassuring to someone she thought to be a distraught child. “However, the four agents involved are some of our top operatives, and used to dealing with unforeseen circumstances –“

“Except for the ones where they get themselves injured,” Liangyu snapped, startling Une a little. “You shouldn’t be sending them on missions like this anymore, they’re way too old!”

There was a moment of silence, whilst Une glanced around the room to check that everyone else had heard that statement. Sally avoiding her gaze, pressing her lips together in what looked suspiciously like an attempt not to laugh, whilst Quatre kept his best, polite, boardroom smile in place ready for her.

“They’re… they’re  _ forty _ ,” Une said, finally, baffled.

“Exactly,” Liangyu said, as if Une’s statement was an agreement. “You need to send someone younger in to get them.”

“I realise this is an unusual situation for you, having both your parents gone at the same time,” Une tried, attempting mollification, which was clearly having no effect on Liangyu’s mood. “However, the situation is entirely under control, and we cannot send more agents out into the field when at the stage we are given to understand the extraction is progressing smoothly.”

“Send me.”

“…Excuse me?”

“Send me in. I’m trained. I can do it,” Liangyu insisted.

“Absolutely not!”

“I can do it,” Liangyu repeated, standing and leaning on Une’s desk.

“I am not sending a fifteen year old into a hostile zone on a delicate extraction mission,” Une told her firmly, standing as well, hands planted firmly on her desk to mirror Liangyu, squaring her shoulders. “That is ridiculous beyond belief-“

“They were fifteen when they were doing things like this,” Liangyu interrupted.

“- Aside from the  _ moral _ implications of sending a teenager into a combat situation,” Une continued, forcefully, “it would be completely illegal; and even if we decide to ignore those fairly pressing issues, you're not even trained!”

“Yes, I am! They've been training me. You know they have!”

“That's not the same -”

“You just said they're two of your top agents, if they’re training me – “

“They’re not training you,” Quatre said gently, interrupting. All three women in the room turned their gazes to him, with varying levels of curiosity, relief and annoyance.

“What do you call everything they’ve taught me?” Liangyu demanded, turning to face him as he stepped away from the door and moved closer.

“They wanted to teach you things that they knew, which had kept them alive over the years, because they wanted to protect you,” he told her. He reached out to place his hand on her shoulder, only for her to flinch away and draw herself up to her full, diminutive height, but still attempting to glare down her nose at his betrayal. “Their training was brutal, and intensive, and cruel. They were being made into weapons, and there was no regard for their wellbeing. Duo and Wufei love you, and just want to keep you  _ safe _ . And the way to do that is not to send you into a conflict zone.”

Liangyu’s fists were clenched by her sides, knuckles white, and her face was furious even as he could see her processing the sense in his words. Over her shoulder, Une straightened up, shoulders relaxing a bit, and Sally gave Quatre a cheery thumbs-up. The teenager in front of him was a roiling mess of emotions, rage and fear and nervous anxiety, and she starkly reminded him of Wufei when they first met, although where he had been full of conflict and self-doubt, Liangyu had a definite stubbornness of conviction. Did that come from her mother, Quatre wondered, or from Duo? Or from having a safe and loving home life that bred a certainty that one was right and indestructible?

“So you’re saying I’m useless?” she asked finally, bitterly.

“No. That’s not what we’re saying.”

“If I can’t help, what’s the point? I learned all this so I  _ could _ help! And you’re saying it’s worthless?”

“Stop being melodramatic,” Sally said, earning a startled look from Liangyu, and a surprised chuckle-turned-cough from Quatre. “You know full well they were never intending for you to play back-up for them. Once you’ve got your temper tantrum out of the way, you’ll know I’m right.”

“I’m not having a temper tantrum!”

The look Sally levelled her with was eloquent. It managed to convey  _ oh please _ , and  _ I have two kids, I know what a tantrum looks like _ , and  _ you’re so cute if you think this isn’t a tantrum _ into just a few quirks of her lips and eyebrows. And, more than Quatre’s gentle reasoning, or Une’s stern refusals, it snuffed out the fuse on Liangyu’s temper, leaving her vaguely embarrassed and a little deflated.

“Come on,” Quatre said, reaching out for her again, and when she didn’t pull away this time starting to guide her towards the door. “We’ll go pick up your stuff and you can come stop with me, keep me company until Heero gets back…”

“Why do I have to stay with you?”

“You could stay with Sally if you like, I’m sure Mireille and Leo would be delighted to have you…”

“...Can Magnus sleep in my room?”

As Quatre closed the door behind him, he heard Une sigh heavily, and then,

“Every time I deal with that girl, I think we were lucky we were up against Chang during the war, not her mother.”

“Don’t let Wufei hear you say that,” Sally chuckled. “You’ll hurt his feelings.”

By the time they reached the car, Liangyu had recovered enough to finally register his choice of vehicle.

“Is it half past your mid-life crisis already?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him and looking suddenly every inch Wufei.

“I just grabbed the nearest car,” he told her, clambering in. “I didn’t really pay attention.”

“And then you parked in front of the school gates to pose for a load of teenage girls in your fancy sportscar,” she drawled, smirking as he pulled out of the parking lot. “It’s alright, I’ve heard this happens to men of a certain age, there’s nothing to be ashamed of…”

Quatre glancing sideways at her, raising his eyebrows, keen to keep the topic of conversation light. He could feel the knot of anxiety deep and tight within her, but she was getting calmer.

“Where did you hear that?”

“I read things.” She sniffed haughtily and propped her elbow on the door, bracing her chin on her hand. “‘Just grabbed the nearest car’, fucking hell,” she muttered. “Dad’s going to have a field day with that one.”

“I thought we were working on not swearing so much.”

“I thought you were going to be bribing me so I didn’t tell my parents about your adventures in a bright red convertible.”

“I think you overestimate how much I mind them making fun of me.”

Silence fell, and there was a heavy sigh. Glancing across again, he saw her looking out of the window morosely, eyes clearly not seeing the countryside go by on the other side of the glass. He let her be, focusing on the road instead.

There had been… some pressure on him to have a child of his own, from the most traditional factions within his Board of Directors. They soon found that pressure had a similar effect on him as it did on carbon - condensing his particles, making him impenetrable. Diamond-sure, Quatre had scathingly and clearly expressed his intention to never father a child, not least because his life partner was more than mildly anxious around children, and after everything he had done for the world he deserved not to be made fretful in his own home.

But even aside from Heero’s discomfort - the way he worried he would cause pain, or suffering to a child, simply because he didn’t know what to do with them; and his gruff, abrupt manner often came across as intimidating, scary, even as he tried his best to be gentle - even aside from that, there was no way Quatre could justify his own time demands. His father had been largely absent from his formative years, WEI was a huge beast that required a lot of management; but he knew his conscience wouldn’t let him be so removed from any child of his own. And, for now, he wasn’t interested in handing his company over to anyone else.

It was the pragmatic choice, and an easy one. He felt lighter for having made it clear that progeny were not an option, and the relief from Heero had been palpable. Quatre had not regretted it.

Besides, he had enough biological nieces and nephews to staff the whole damn company, near enough. Finding a Winner successor was not going to be hard.

And for the rest…?

There was a certain warmth in caring for the children of his dearest friends. And a definite relief in having the space to himself again after they had left.

“...They’re going to come back okay, aren’t they?” Liangyu’s voice was uncharacteristically small, and hesitant.

“Of course they are,” Quatre said. “They’re formidable, all four of them. They’ll get it done.” He paused, glanced sideways at her again, grinned. “And if not, Sally and I will go in and get them, because Sally’s not going to forgive Trowa for leaving her alone with their kids. And I have absolutely no interest in adopting you. Unless I send you to boarding school…”

She shot him a reluctant grin.

“I don’t want you to adopt me either,” she told him.

“Good. Glad we understand each other.”

  
  


*

 

The following morning, Liangyu missed registration, leading to some curious murmurs throughout the class.

These only increased when she slid into first period with everyone else, pausing to pass a note to Madame Fayard. Liangyu stood there, awkwardly, as the teacher read the missive, before folding it up and passing it back to her. She said something in an undertone, and Liangyu nodded, before heading to a seat at the back of the classroom, avoiding eye contact, and hiding behind a very large book. If she was aware of all the inquisitive looks that were shot at her throughout the lesson, she didn’t show it. The only person she spoke to was Sophie, the blonde girl in the seat beside her and the only girl who Liangyu seemed to actually be friends with. Sophie leaned over and murmured a question, getting a shrug in response.

Evidently a double period of Mathematics wasn’t enough to keep her attention this morning.

For the first time since Hester had started, Liangyu remained silent for the whole lesson, instead working on whatever was keeping her attention within the textbook. At the end of the class, as the bell rang for morning break, there was some significant dawdling, as people hoped to try and catch her to ask what was going on, but Madame Fayard shooed them out of the room.

Hester managed to catch her by lurking near some lockers outside the classroom, and falling into step beside Liangyu and Sophie as they left the room. Sophie looked at her suspiciously, but Liangyu ignored her, eyes straight ahead as she walked.

“So,” Hester said, cheerfully, ignoring the stink-eye she was getting from the blonde girl on Liangyu’s other side, “yesterday was fun.”

“What do you want, Hester?” Sophie demanded, when Liangyu didn’t respond to the comment.

“I’m wondering how to join the school Parkour team, and I thought I’d ask the incumbent captain for advice,” she drawled. “And, also, there’s the fact that you scrambled over a ten foot fence to fling yourself into a sportscar with Quatre Winner, which is currently topic of the week.”

“He’s my uncle,” Liangyu said, pausing at her locker and retrieving her keys from her backpack to open the padlock. Hester leaned against the lockers beside Liangyu’s and studied her curiously, as she stuffed her maths textbook into the cubby, and pulled out the books for her pre-Colony History lesson after lunch.

“Really,” Hester said, with a raised eyebrow, gaze pointedly flicking to Liangyu’s unforgivingly black hair, her tanned complexion, and dark eyes.

Liangyu swung her locker door with a ‘clang’ and deftly redid the padlock, before turning to meet Hester’s gaze flatly.

“Non-biological,” Liangyu said, and then began to head down the corridor again, Sophie in tow.

“You do surprise me.” Hester caught up easily enough, and the three of them walked, shoulder-to-shoulder, through the school, forcing clusters of lower-year students out of their way, the crowd of blue blazers parting like water around a ship, closing up again behind them as if they had never been disturbed. “How come no-one else seems to know he’s your non-biological uncle?”

“I knew,” Sophie said, irritably.

“Sophie knew,” Liangyu agreed, drawing to a stop outside her next classroom, and turning to put her back against the wall. She looked placidly at Hester, and Sophie hovered, impatiently, clearly not wanting to leave her friend alone with this unknown quantity. Hester met her stare-for-stare, unruffled and seemingly not inclined to move from where she was stood, clogging up the hallway.

“Don’t you have class to go to?” Sophie asked, finally.

“Yeah,” Hester agreed. “Double History, with Monsieur Pelton.”

Sophie looked extremely disgruntled about this development, and looked at Liangyu.

“It’s fine,” she said, in response to the unasked question. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

Hester moved to stand against the wall beside Liangyu, out of the way of the traffic around her, and watched Sophie reluctantly head towards the stairs, glancing over her shoulder to check Hester hadn’t assaulted her friend the minute she walked away, bell ringing out overhead to get students scurrying to lessons.

“I don’t think she likes me very much,” Hester said.

“You haven’t done very much to be likeable,” Liangyu observed placidly, and slid into the classroom as the door opened for the lesson.

  
  


*

  
  


Quatre could see the disappointment on Liangyu’s face when she walked around the corner from school and met him. He had learned his lesson and was skulking in a park nearby, with Magnus snuffling curiously at the ground around his feet.

“I could take that a little personally, you know,” he told her as she drew nearer.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “It’s not you.”

“I know you and Magnus had a falling out last night, but really, I think you can resolve it.”

She quirked a smile at that, and they both began to stroll along the path further into the park. Magnus perked up and trotted further afield for more sniffing, chasing the few fallen leaves which were blown around. He kept circling back to them, looping around their legs to check they were still there, before galumphing off again.

Magnus had, as promised, begun the night in Liangyu’s guest room the night before, but around midnight there had been a startled shout, and then some scuffling, and when Quatre had poked his head out of the door to see what was happening, Magnus had been decisively kicked out of the room. The big, shaggy dog had sniffed at the bottom of the door curiously for a moment, before turning to Quatre and whining questioningly.

“No chance,” Quatre had told him firmly. “I know what your sleep farts are like.”

“You caused a lot of gossip,” Liangyu told him, after several minutes of silent walking. She wasn’t looking at him, watching instead as Magnus attempted to reach up a tree trunk after a squirrel that had darted across his path. Quatre disguised his wince by scratching his nose.

“Sorry about that,” he said.

“It’s alright,” she said breezily, and then there was a wicked little smile playing at the edge of her mouth. “I just told them all I was your daughter from your first marriage.”

There was a long pause, as Quatre processed that.

“Oh,” he said slowly. “Well. I suppose I had better warn the PR department, just in case that comes back to haunt me.”

“It could have been worse,” she reassured him. “There were a few people who thought we were having an illicit affair.”

“With my own daughter? Better and better.” He watched her walk, linking her hands behind her back and walking with purposeful steps, ensuring not to step on any cracks. She grinned up at him, an expression that was entirely Duo, spinning as she did so to walk backwards beside him so she could watch his face.

“And what happened to Heero in this dastardly entanglement?” he asked, curiously. “Have we broken up, or am I cuckolding him? Or better yet, have we murdered him together to get him out of the picture?”

“They conveniently forgot about Heero,” she said. “He’s not so famous.”

“A lucky escape for him,” Quatre said sagely. Liangyu nodded thoughtfully.

“Do you think they’ll be back tomorrow?” she asked, after a pause, turning again to face the right way. She was watching him carefully though and he shot her a regretful smile.

“I’ve learned not to expect anyone to be back if the plan has been thrown out,” he said slowly. “They’ll be back when they’re back.”

They reached the far side of the park, where his Range Rover was parked - somewhat more discreet than the sportscar, but still earning an eyeroll from Liangyu. For someone who didn’t know how to drive, she had a lot of opinions about cars.

“What’s wrong with this one?” he demanded, opening the boot so Magnus could jump in and get settled in the blanket laid out in there for him. Liangyu shrugged expressively.

“Do you really need it?” she asked.

“No,” he said, “I don’t need any of my cars, but I’m terribly rich so I have them because I want them. What has this one done to offend you?”

She clambered into the passenger seat and studied him as he slid in behind the wheel. He looked at her expectantly, waiting for her judgement.

“Well,” she said finally, “it’s far too big for your needs. And you don’t go anywhere regularly that a normal car wouldn’t be able to access. It’s too large for most of the roads around here, the fuel economy is terrible, and it’s awful for the environment.”

Quatre sighed, looked briefly to the ceiling, and wondered why, out of the two parents she had, she had chosen to take Wufei’s side in the car debate. Duo would have loved this car, he thought wistfully.

“Firstly,” he said, pulling out of the parking space and heading towards the road, “I’m, as previously mentioned, terribly rich, so the fuel economy isn’t really a consideration. Secondly, it’s very large and very comfortable, and I do a lot of driving. I also have, through no fault of my own I assure you, a very gassy dog, and the more distance between him and I the better.”

At this, Magnus sat up, as if he knew aspersions were being cast on his good name. He rested his chin on the back of the rear seats and let out a whine.

“Yes, I’m talking about you,” Quatre reassured him, meeting his eyes in the rearview mirror, before glancing back across at Liangyu. “And finally, because I am terribly rich, did I mention that? It means I was able to get some… modifications made. This particular too-large car runs entirely on green fuels, and has been tweaked to within an inch of its life to be as efficient as possible. And it can still go very, very fast.” He paused, found himself smiling despite himself. “Does that meet your rigorous standards?”

“...Just about,” she said.

“Good.”

“I’m sorry that Heero had to go rescue my dad.”

Startled, Quatre looked at her to see her fidgeting with the strap of her backpack, looking a little guilty.

“What?”

“If it hadn’t been for my dads, Heero would still be at home, and you wouldn’t be so worried about him.”

“...Nobody  _ made _ Heero go on this assignment,” Quatre said gently. “He wanted to go. He cares for your dad, and for Trowa, very much. If Duo hadn’t suggested they take point on it, he would have done.”

She looked unconvinced, and made a disgruntled noise.

“Yeah but. If he gets hurt, because of my dads, that’s not fair on you.”

“And if your dad got hurt because I said Heero couldn’t help, that’s not fair on you.”

“That’s not the same.”

Pulling into the driveway at his house, he shut off the engine and looked at her, whilst she looked resolutely at her hands. Reaching over, he covered them with one of his own, stilling their restless motions. She stared at his knuckles for a long moment, probably noticing the long-faded scars from when he was her age. Eventually she looked up, met his gaze.

“We are family,” he said, clearly emphasising each word. “You, me, your dads, Trowa, Sally, Mireille and Leo, Relena… If anything happened to any of you - including your dads - I would be devastated. And the same for Heero. That’s why he went. And that’s why I’m grateful he went.”

“I just… Whenever Heero goes away, you’re on your own. And if he doesn’t come back…”

“And whenever I go away, he’s on his own.”

“You’re not getting shot at.”

“Sometimes I think that might be preferable…” Quatre muttered. “Look, of course I don’t want anything to happen to Heero. But the reason I love Heero is because of who he is, and who he is means that he will do everything he can to help, no matter who it is. And if it’s family he’ll do even more. So he had to go. And he has to come back because I told him if he doesn’t I’m giving Magnus to Sally.”

He paused, made sure Liangyu was listening.

“But if he  _ doesn’t  _ come back, that’s not your fault. And it’s not your dads’ fault either. Heero knows what he’s getting into, just like they do.”

“....Okay.”

“Good.” Quatre released her hands and unclipped both their seatbelts. “Let’s have no more of this nonsense then. I don’t want to have to talk you down from one of these things every day until they’re back, we’ll both get tired of it.”

  
  


*

  
  


The next two days had followed much the same pattern as Wednesday, with Liangyu keeping herself isolated in class, and Hester attempting to find out what was going on. With roughly the same level of success. Sophie was rapidly getting fed up with their new shadow, although Liangyu didn’t seem to either notice or care - Hester wasn’t sure which.

She was also no closer to finding out what was on that note, or why Quatre Winner had turned up out of the blue the other day. Hester didn’t like not knowing things, and whilst she acknowledged that maybe she should take a hint, said hints were coming from Sophie, not Liangyu, so…

Hester was trying to decide whether it would be worth following Liangyu to the library, in the hopes that Sophie would go home now that school was over, and it would give her the chance to grill Liangyu one-on-one, without a teacher or Sophie trying to stop her, and maybe then she’d get an answer.

The hope was squashed, though, as Sophie stopped abruptly whilst they cut across the courtyard to the library, and grabbed Liangyu’s arm, pulling her to a halt as well. Hester turned to see Sophie pointing to the school gates, Liangyu’s gaze following her gesture. The Chinese girl’s face went from confused to elated in a split second, and then she was sprinting to the school gates.

Hester trailed behind, ignoring Sophie’s smug expression.

There was someone parked across the street from the school gates again. Not a bright red sportscar, but a standard black hatchback. Nothing extraordinary. Hester didn’t quite recognise the two men stood by it either. One was tall, probably just over six foot, with long chestnut hair and a soft, crooked grin that was directed at Liangyu. The other was about half a head shorter, and looked like Liangyu, if Liangyu were male and in her thirties, inky black hair brushing his collarbone, as he too smiled tiredly. Both of them had scrapes up their forearms and faces, and looked a little rumpled and tired, but the shorter man also had one wrist and one knee in braces, and a bandage that could be seen disappearing under his collar.

These injuries didn’t stop Liangyu flinging herself at them, darting across the road with only a scant look sideways, and aging Madame Broad about thirty years as she stood on bus duty and watched her student leap into traffic. The men caught her easily though, and pulled her into a tight hug. Liangyu tilted her face up to speak to them, and it was more open than Hester had seen all week, startlingly so.

From her demeanor around school, Hester had taken Liangyu to be calculating, cold. That was part of why she wanted to find out what made her tick. Hester’s experience with private school students was limited, she had been at a comprehensive prior to getting into Merchez for her final two years, and she had barely scraped the funds to clear her fees. There had been a manner amongst some of the other students, from wealthy families, in a selective school, a superiority. Something which Hester often felt was directed at her. She had assumed Liangyu’s manner was a peak example of that, but with a refreshing lack of the false sweetness that set Hester’s teeth on edge.

Maybe not.

She watched them clamber into the car - the man with the two braces rather creakily - and pull away. When she turned around, Sophie was watching her with the same, smug satisfaction on her face.

  
  


*

  
  


Liangyu had been very clingy for the rest of the evening, insisting on a full rundown of all injuries - one cracked kneecap, one broken wrist, a bullet hole neatly through one shoulder, and several more grazes and bruises.

But Wufei was alive. And that was all that mattered.

They had ended up sprawled on the sofa the three of them, with Liangyu sandwiched between them as they watched crappy tv and ate cut-rate take-out. None of them had been particularly inclined to do anything else, the reunion in their safe home feeling long overdue, and rattled nerves on all fronts needing soothing.

It was past midnight, and Liangyu had actually fallen asleep on Wufei, before they managed to coax her off the sofa and up the stairs to bed. Duo had trailed behind turning the lights off behind them as Wufei limped up the stairs with their daughter, supporting his uninjured arm as he hobbled his way up and trying not to yawn. She had paused outside her bedroom, and then pulled them both into a tight, intense hug, before disappearing into the room.

Wufei stared at the closed door for a long moment, looking sad, before allowing Duo to guide him along the landing to their room.

“You shouldn’t have come to get me,” he said, quietly, when the door was closed. “The whole point was that we wouldn’t both be gone at the same time - it was too stressful for her.”

“I couldn’t leave you out there,” Duo disagreed, leading him away from the door to the bed, starting to help him unbutton his shirt, hands gently smoothing over the bruises and scrapes on the exposed skin.

“Someone else could have come.”

“She’d have never forgiven me if I hadn’t done everything I could,” Duo told him. “ _ I’d _ never have forgiven me.”

“But - “

“Shhhh…” Duo quieted him by brushing their lips together, and carefully working the shirt off over the wrist brace.

Wufei let him, and allowed himself to be sat on the bed as Duo worked his trousers off, briefly getting stuck where they had been cut away for the knee brace. And then he let Duo reposition him on the bed, ensuring the pillows under his head were arranged properly.

“I’m not an invalid,” he said, with a small smirk.

“I know,” Duo replied, starting to slide his own clothes off. “Just… let me do this, okay?”

“Okay,” Wufei agreed, uninjured hand coming up to gently brush hair away from his husband’s face as he clambered onto the mattress, bracing over him on his hands and knees. Duo allowed himself to be coaxed down, into a slow, reverent kiss.

The contact sent warmth curling through Wufei, reassuring and familiar, and he ached with the thought that he could have lost this. Lost what he had spent all evening reminding himself he had. Duo ghosted a hand along his jaw, cupping his cheek cautiously, and it was clear he was thinking the same thing.

The kiss ended, and Duo instead began to trail his lips down Wufei’s neck, his clavicle, along the edge of the bandage around his shoulder. Fingers followed where mouth led, chasing warmth with little tingles of sensation, electricity, that turned the warmth into slow building heat. Across his ribs, down his sides, over his hips - and he gasped, pressing towards that sensation, erection now full and throbbing pleasantly with each new, lazy caress.

His husband bypassed it though, instead continuing down his legs, grazing the edges of his knee brace, before working his way back up.

And then those lips were on his cock, hot and wet and perfect, and for a brief moment he forgot how to breathe. His vision fuzzed for a moment, and all his aches were forgotten in the face of the sensation between his legs. He managed to choke out a gasp when Duo’s mouth slid up, sucking lightly, and his hips followed, trying to chase it.

Firm hands gripped his hips, holding him still, and absolutely refusing to be rushed, despite the encouragement Wufei was giving, in increasingly desperate gasps and moans. Instead the pace was slow, measured, and utterly torturous. All he could do was reach down with his uninjured hand and lace the fingers into Duo’s ever-loosening hair, using it to hold on tight as the pleasure washing through his body in gentle, building waves started to take over. He was reduced to a pliant, helpless puddle on the bedspread as Duo worked his magic, and each drag of lips and tongue across his cock nudged him that tiny bit closer, tightened the knot in his belly.

His orgasm was almost a surprise, mellow and relaxed as he was. One minute he was floating in a cloud of sensation that had taken over every synapse in his brain, and the next he was gasping for breath and his hips were straining against the grip on them, as sparks flickered across the back of his eyelids.

Duo sucked him until the sensation eased, and his cock softened. Then he crawled up Wufei’s body and kissed him gently, lying on the mattress beside him. Carefully, he pulled Wufei to curl against his side, resting his head on his chest, arm wrapped around Wufei’s back. They were pressed together from shoulder to knee, and Wufei, suddenly so drained and tired, allowed himself to be held, watching through sleepy eyes as Duo attended to his own erection, face pressed into Wufei’s hair as he did so, holding him tight - so tight.

It didn’t take long before he was shuddering and thick, white cum was pulsing over his fingers and stomach, and Wufei reached up to stroke his chest, his face, his jaw. Tilting his head back to kiss Duo gently, tenderly as he trembled his way back down from his orgasm, Wufei rolled to snag the tissues off the bedside table, carefully cleaning away the mess. And then Duo kissed him again, and it was a little more forceful, relief even more apparent.

“It’s alright,” Wufei murmured. “I’m here. We’re both here.”

“Good,” Duo said. “Good.”

It didn’t take long to rearrange themselves under the sheets, adjusting, trying to work out which way would be most comfortable to lie with Wufei’s injuries making themselves known once more. But then they were curled around each other, and the reality that they were all safe, and home, suddenly seemed easier to believe.

Wufei was drifting off when Duo chuckled sleepily behind him.

“I just remembered,” he muttered, pressing a kiss to the back of Wufei’s neck, “I didn’t tell you what I found out when you were gettin’ patched up.”

“What?”

“After I shipped out to come get you, apparently Liangyu marched in to see Une,” Duo said, his voice a low rumble. “She demanded to be sent out after us.”

“What?” Wufei repeated, but this time in disbelief. He tried to crane his head round to squint at Duo in the dark, but the heavy arm across his side held him in place.

“Apparently she thinks she’s trained enough to come extract us when things go south,” Duo told him.

“...We’re going to need to talk to her about that.”

“Oh yeah, no doubt,” Duo agreed. “Still, kinda sweet though. If you ever doubted she was your kid…”

“I don’t think that’s just my influence,” Wufei said wryly, adjusting again to snuggle back into the cuddle.

“I love you.”

“I love you too. Go to sleep.”

**Author's Note:**

> \- Merchez Academy is named after Marianne Merchez, who is currently the only female Belgian astronaut! 
> 
> \- As I am unfamiliar with the Belgian high school system, (and after research showed me that it would be tricky to become familiar with it) Liangyu's school is based on the UK teaching model, which is why it is a private school, to keep it separate from the Belgian state system. In particular, it's modelled on my own experience in a selective all-girls school, although mine was a state school not private.
> 
> The UK high school is roughly split into three sections - Lower School (years 7 to 9, ages 11 to 14), Upper School (years 10 and 11, ages 14 to 16) and Sixth Form (years 12 and 13, ages 16 to 18). Lower school is rounded off by your year 9 SATS, Upper School with your GCSEs, and Sixth Form by your A-levels or an International Baccalaureate. Uniforms are worn up to Sixth Form, and then in Sixth Form you can wear your own clothes.
> 
> Sixth Form is also not compulsory, and students can leave after their GCSEs to pursue apprenticeships or vocational training. In a school like Liangyu's, not many girls would transfer out at that stage, but it does offer an opportunity for girls who didn't get into the school at 11 to transfer in for the final two years and get the boost for a University application.
> 
> That's where you get Hester, who went to a normal state school for the bulk of her education, but transferred in to a more academically rigorous school for the final two years (Sixth form)
> 
> The school day is split into six lessons - starts at 8:50am with registration, possibly an assembly, and first period starts at 9:15. The lessons are approximately fifty minutes long, and you get two periods, then mid-morning break for twenty minutes; two periods, then an hour lunch, and then two further periods before home. In Sixth Form, you can select the subjects you want to specialise in, so class makeup differs from lesson to lesson.
> 
> Ta-daaa!
> 
> \- Prince Harry came to my school once, to teach rugby, and the first I heard of it was when a group of lower school girls burst into the library and clambered up some chairs to peer out the window, much to the disgust of the librarian. We went through the school hall and they were lining the windows. The staff closed off the path down that side of the school and had to act as security to stop girls sneaking down it - which was a pain as it was the quickest route to my classroom. But I'm certain Quatre Winner would cause a similar level of excitement.
> 
>  - Liangyu pretending to be Quatre's daughter from his first marriage is something a cousin of mine did to our Uncle when she moved near him. She was about ten years older than our other cousins, his children, so thought it was hilarious to tell everyone that. It got even funnier as all my younger cousins' friends started doing it too, so at one point if you asked the right person he had fathered half of the school years of both his kids, as well as his own actual children.
> 
> \- mad props and eternal thanks to Kangofu-cb for beta reading and supporting. And to Tumbledrylemur, whose prompt is responsible for this whole ridiculous mess.


End file.
